Basic Italian: Everything You Need to Live the Dolce Vita at Home (Basic Series)

Basic Cooking and Baskic Baking served as solid foundations for learning how to cook and bake. Now, even more enjoyment, fun, and knowledge about trendy and classic cooking is possible. Italy epitomizes vivaciousness--la dolce vita--and its cooking is probably the best-loved national cuisine in the world. The first section of this book offers basic how-to's on shopping for key ingredients (like pasta, cheese, balsamic vinegar, espresso, and wine), explains these necessaries, and lists Italian souvenirs that will infuse any home with "that Italian feeling." The recipe section is divided into starters, snacks and salads, pasta, risotto, pizza and polenta, soups and vegetables, fish and meat, and dolci. But this is not a simple collection of ethnic recipes; it is a new approach to Italian cooking and an eclectic group of meals that will well serve any party or gathering, big or small.

Creator of the Basic Series concept and author of a whole line of the collection's titles, Sebastian Dickhaut is an accomplished food journalist and cookbook author with a reputation for creating casual, stylish recipes. He just moved from Sydney back to Southern Germany.

Cornelia Schinharl has authored many cookbooks and has collaborated with Seabstian Dickhaut in writing a number of the very successful Basic Series books.